What impact will the recent defeat of the Northern Virginia transportation sales tax referendum have on commercial business development in that region? I don't think it's going to hinder future development. The available space will still be developed. The defeat of the referendum cuts the amount of development you could have done on the sites.

How does your company help promote smart growth and control sprawl? We have certain groups that work with developers in an advisory capacity for what might be the highest and best use for their particular piece of property

Do you think the recent creation of the Homeland Security Department will result in a lift for the Washington area commercial real estate market? Absolutely it will help. I don't think it's a savior, because the Washington area real estate market is 350 million square feet, and the Homeland Security space requirement may be as big as 2 million square feet.

The decline in the technology and telecommunications industries and the dot-com crash have resulted in higher vacancy rates for the Dulles Corridor. What do you see in the future for that region? That is still great real estate. What needs to happen is another industry needs to come in and start to absorb that space. At this point there is no industry foreseeable that's going to step in. I believe that will still be a problem for the next several years.

What are your commercial redevelopment goals for the District? The MCI Arena area looks great now. That is going to provide a huge boost. The momentum and the benefit of what local developers have done is going to make the East End vibrant like it was 15 years ago.